Memorizing Mulder
by destyshell
Summary: After his partner takes an amorous Eddie Van Blundht for Mulder, he sets out to insure she doesn't make the same mistake again.


Memorizing Mulder

Set after "Small Potatoes"

Still owning diddly…don't sue

After his partner takes an amorous Eddie Van Blundht for Mulder, he sets out to insure she doesn't make the same mistake again.

xxxx

"Leave light off, Scully," Mulder scrambled around the desk, his hand closing around his partner's as her palm slid across the wall, fumbling for the switch.

"What the hell, Mulder?" Scully balked as Mulder quickly shut the hallway door behind her, sitting her handbag on the floor beside the desk and leading her to the pitch black corner behind his chair.

"Dammit!" Scully swore as her heel caught on the leg of Mulder's desk, sending her stumbling into her partner's steady arms.

"Sorry, Scully," Mulder offered with only mild contrition, far too obsessed with his plans to process her complaint. Not only did Mulder want to insure that no doppelganger would ever fool his partner again, but having witnessed Scully's near-kiss with his imposter, he hoped that she might be inclined to try the real thing.

"Care to explain yourself, Mulder? First, you refuse to answer your phone all weekend," Scully had tried repeatedly to apologize to Mulder for her mistake with Van Blundht, but had only reached his voice mail. "And then I find you sitting here in the dark," Scully inquired, exasperated at her partner's behavior.

Mulder released Scully's shoulders long enough to slide her suit jacket off and stow it on the back of his chair.

"I tried to explain to you when we arrested Van Blundht—yes, he was acting a little odd, but otherwise, he _looked_ just like you, Mulder. That was his M.O.-Martinsburg was overrun with numerous half-siblings born with tails as proof," Scully defended, noting Van Blundht's crime of posing as several husbands and a sci-fi hero, impregnating the women of the West Virginia town while assuming his various guises. His appearance-altering abilities earned him a place in the X-files and a chance to put the moves on one Dana Scully.

"I know, Scully, I know," Mulder soothed, running his hands down his partner's shoulders. "But you know, we've seen this sort of thing before, and it's highly likely we'll see it again—shape-shifters, clones, mutants…," Mulder listed off-handedly.

Before Mulder let all the possible threats against them overtake the conversation, he breathed deeply and relaxed his grip, softening to more of a light caress as he slid behind his partner, his voice deep and quiet in her ear.

"Scully, you need to be able to know it's me…even if you can't trust your eyes…."

Scully nodded slightly, the back of her head grazing Mulder's silk tie as she did so, breathing slowing as she relaxed against Mulder's body, Scully silently accepted her part in Mulder's unorthodox tutelage, having already berated herself for not recognizing Van Blundht as a charlatan when he plied her with wine and elicited stories of fire trucks and prom nights.

"Ok…."

"Think about my voice, Scully, describe it for me. Remember it…," Mulder coaxed, almost demanding, while trying to retain control.

"Hmm," Scully contemplated, trying to describe the voice she heard every day in all its different guises. "Right now, the timbre is very warm, inviting…you're trying to get me comfortable…go along with your little experiment…," Scully smiled, feeling Mulder's little chuckle against her back.

"The tone…you are trying to keep it even, trying to hide that little bit of anxiety you don't want me to hear," Mulder's forehead dropped to the back of Scully's head, his hope for hiding his insecurities decidedly squashed.

Scully could feel Mulder's wry smile at the corner of her cheek as she continued.

"Right now, a lot of the resonance comes from your chest, but when you are teasing or whining, and then it's all in your nose," Scully grinned, turning her head toward Mulder's face.

"I'm fairly adept at both," Mulder joked, his hands settling comfortably on Scully's waist.

"Sometimes you mumble a little—forces a suspect to pay attention," Scully smiled in the dark as she played along with Mulder's game. "When you are calm and confident, you tend to inflect the beginning of your sentences," Scully leaned her cheek against Mulder's chest.

"But when you are frustrated and insistent," Scully licked her lips, regretting the necessity of drawing on some of their more painful moments, "the stress shifts to the end, volume increases, articulation becomes more precise…."

"Ok…," Mulder was a little taken aback at Scully's insight, the typically stoic doctor rarely commenting on her partner's less-obvious quirks.

"When you are particularly desperate, you've called out my name so loud and long, it's like you're trying to tether us together with the sound of your voice," Scully finished, turning to face Mulder, though remaining in her partner's arms, her hands moving to his biceps.

Mulder sucked in a nervous breath, feeling for a moment that the situation was escaping his control.

"I think we've adequately covered the issue of sound," Mulder swiftly changed the subject, hoping to lighten the mood with his next query.

"What about smell?"

"You want me to smell you, Mulder?" Scully grinned and chuckled.

"To your heart's content, Scully," Mulder straightened proudly, his hands resting at the small of his partner's back.

"I guess I'll start with the obvious first," Scully smiled, her arms wrapped around Mulder's chest, closing her eyes and breathing deeply against the finely-spun oxford cloth.

Mulder's eyebrow quirked when he swore he heard a little soft moan come from Scully's throat, the fact that his partner's lush breasts were currently pressed against him only adding to the pleasure of the moment.

"Scully?" Mulder inquired softly.

"Just give me a minute," Scully giggled, not letting her partner rush her fun.

"Extra starch from the dry cleaners…," Scully began, trying to contain her giggles.

"Come on…," Mulder drawled, leaning back against the desk, so he wouldn't tower over Scully.

"Ok…," Scully closed her eyes, taking in all the scent that emanated from her partner's body.

"That cologne we bought at the mall in Covina, when the airline lost our luggage…the little brown bottle?" she recalled.

"It was the one you liked," Mulder added, smiling in the dark.

Scully travelled upward along Mulder's chest, her nose grazing the tender flesh above his collar.

"Sure deodorant…that sandalwood soap I bought during your recuperation couple of months ago…"

"My own little Florence Nightingale," mused Mulder, recalling the days after his escape from Russia and Scully's refusal to leave his side.

Mulder tightened his grip on Scully's waist as she stood on tiptoe, breathing deeply against his dark locks.

"The lavender shampoo I left at your apartment," Scully grinned against his hair, not wasting the opportunity to rake her fingers through those dark brown strands.

"It makes my hair all bouncy and silky," Mulder joked with an affected shake of his head.

Scully laughed lightly in response, moving closer to Mulder's mouth, their lips nearly grazing each other in the pass.

"Coalgate toothpaste…dark roast coffee…," Scully noted, so close that she shared breath with Mulder, "cherry cheese Danish?" she nearly accused. "Where's mine?" she asked pointedly.

"Top of the filing cabinet," Mulder answered with a grin.

"Thank you," his partner smiled with satisfaction.

Moving to Mulder's right, he could swear that he felt her lips graze just under his ear and then lick her lips. He was holding his partner so closely that he feared his body would betray him if she kept up her intense method of investigation.

"Sunflower kernels…salt…but not just from the seeds," Scully's brow furrowed as she buried her nose at the edge of Mulder's hairline, then began to run her palms along his biceps, shoulders and pectorals, her hand passing over his heart, noting the increase in speed and reveling in the effect she had on her partner.

"You worked out this morning," Scully deduced from the swell and definition beneath her hands. "I mean, I know you showered after, but muscles will still produce heat even after the workout is finished….And you were probably a little nervous about asking me to do this," Scully noted with a raised brow.

"Touché'," Mulder conceded, nodding slightly in deference to Scully's insight.

Dropping her hands lower, Scully continued her impromptu examination that left Mulder sucking in a breath for the sake of restraint.

Trained fingers and palms trailed down the length of Mulder's thighs, tracing the long, lean muscle she found there, bent down to note the abused knees, reached around to follow the hamstring back up to Mulder's glutes. Scully, emboldened by Mulder's obvious self-consciousness following the whole Van Blundht debacle, continued even further, eliciting a little squeak from her partner when she gave his backside a hearty squeeze.

"Little sore after all that running this weekend?" Scully inquired with a dry, teasing wittiness.

"A little," Mulder admitted, trying to retain his composure and what was left of his dignity.

Stepping around to straddle her partner's hip, Scully slid her hand to Mulder's taut abdomen, chuckling to herself as he sucked in his breath, regardless. But below the defined muscle, Scully prodded his belly for the slight swell that indicated the weekend's overindulgence.

"Pizza or Chinese?" she inquired succinctly.

"Excuse me?" Mulder responded, a little taken aback.

"Well, I'm guessing you were in no mood to go out, and you certainly didn't call _me_ to join you…."

"I thought you might be busy," Mulder teased, still razzing Scully about her inadvertent liaison with Van Blundht.

"Very funny," Scully replied drolly. "So, I would assume that you were holed up in your apartment Saturday night with take out—pizza or Chinese being the most likely candidates.

Scully rubbed Mulder's belly affectionately, as if trying to soothe the certain discomfort.

"Pizza, if you must know," Mulder defended meekly, gently pulling Scully in front of him once more. Even in the dark, Scully knew that Mulder was quite happy with his partner's insights, even those that were a little painful to hear. His body seemed charged with a certain energy, provoked by Scully's attentions.

"So how did I do, Mulder? Is there anything else I should know in case some alien, evil spirit or long-lost twin decides to impersonate you in the future?" Scully grinned, her arms wrapped around her partner as she stood between his parted thighs.

Mulder pulled Scully even closer, one hand dropping low on her back as the other gently coaxed her long-neglected lips toward his own.

Making sure that this kiss would be imprinted forever in his partner's memory, clearly distinguishing him from any other pretenders that might come along, Mulder whispered against Scully's ready lips, "I can only think of one…."


End file.
